Facts of the Case

Mirrormask ably brings to life the flotsam (including flying fish,
talking chickens, and molting books) floating through the mind of multiple Hugo
and Stoker award-winning writer Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere), responsible for
the book American Gods and comics such as Death: The High Cost of
Living. Long-time Gaiman collaborator Dave McKean directs and designs the
production, bringing it to life with a familiar, yet unexpected, shape.

The movie opens with two socks—a white sock and a black sock
representing light and shadows—fighting it out against some kind of faded
paper background. Next we see a freaky-faced mime taking a turn at a ticket
window. We pull back on the socks to see that they're on the feet of Helena
(Stephanie Leonidas, Empire) and the faded paper is the drawings that
line the walls of the trailer she lives in. Helena, it turns out, is a circus
performer and she's not ready to go on yet. Actually, she's not ready to go on
ever, as she tells her mother who is pounding on the trailer door.

"All of those kids in there want to run away and join the circus,"
Mum (Gina McKee, Croupier, Notting Hill) chides.

"I want to run away and join real life," Helena fires back.

Still, the show must go on and Helena must do her juggling act. As she's
leaving the ring, Helena sees her mother being taken away in an ambulance. Soon
she's staying with Aunt Nan (Dora Bryan, The Great St. Trinian's Train
Robbery) while her father Morris (Rob Brydon, Little Britain) does a
juggling act of his own, caught between the demands of the circus
troupe—which wishes to go on to Scotland so that the show may go
on—and his desire to stay with his hospitalized wife as she undergoes
surgery. Morris is also trying to reassure his daughter, but his awkward words
only seem to intensify her fear and frustration.

As her Mum undergoes an operation, Helena's dreams are a blur of images,
juxtaposing the surgery with circus scenes. Helena goes to investigate a noise.
At first it looks like she's stumbled on an impromptu circus rehearsal, but it
soon morphs into something more sinister. Helena is saved from death by the
masked Valentine (Jason Barry, Beyond
Re-Animator) and immediately has to contend with a Sphinx who likes to
nibble on books. She's in the City of Light, in an alternate universe
that—wouldn't you know it?—looks a lot like her drawings.

Everyone wears a mask here, except this strange newcomer. "How do you
know if you're happy or sad without a mask?" Valentine asks. Too bad Helena
didn't don a mask, because her face looks familiar—and she's carted off to
the palace, where the prime minister (Brydon again) accuses her of stealing a
charm but quickly realizes that she's not the princess they seek.

"Look at her. She's not her. I mean, she's not her," he
says.

It seems the princess from the City of Shadows has made off with a charm,
leaving the Queen of the City of Light (McKee again, in white wig) in a deep
sleep as the city becomes enveloped by shadows. It seems like a quest is in the
making and, since "you can't come into these quest things without your
manager present," Helena is taking Valentine along in search of the
mysterious charm that will save the city, a quest that will put her in the path
of the Queen of the City of Shadows (McKee yet again, in dark wig).

One more thing. Every time Helena looks through a window, she sees this girl
who looks like her, but it can't be—or can it?

The Evidence

One of the impressive aspects of Mirrormask is that the
"real" world of Helena at the circus looks as surreal as the
alternate-universe City of Light. At the circus, everyone wears grotesque masks,
foreshadowing Helena's visit to the strange city. Everything's shot from an odd
angle, whether it's the Cirque du Soleil-style performances of her father's
circus or the large, imposing apartment block where Aunt Nan lives, as the
cameras track Helena through her life and quick cuts help viewers board the
disorientation express.

Thus, when Helena enters the computer-generated alternate City of Light,
there were just a few minutes when I thought I was seeing that "real"
world through an odd prism—until the spider with the giant eye and the
catlike Sphinx turned up. Then everything changes and the characters truly seem
to be inhabiting that pen-and-ink world on yellowed paper that Helena drew.
Awkward, clown-like movements and chases and action scenes featuring lots of
graceful gymnastics tie the City of Light back to Helena's surreal life in the
circus.

Stephanie Leonidas and Jason Barry as the two questers deliver performances
good enough to remind us that there are indeed humans in this CGI showcase of a
movie. Leonidas plays Helena as an unstoppably confident, inquisitive force as
she seeks the charm that can save the City of Light, while Barry makes Valentine
believable as a frightened conniver, even (or perhaps especially) while hiding
behind a mask for most of the movie. Leonidas brings a subtle serious side to
life as well in touching scenes with Brydon and McKee. Sharp listeners will hear
the voices of Stephen Fry (Jeeves and Wooster), Lenny Henry
(Chef), and Robert Llewellyn (Red Dwarf) in cameos.

Production designer and director Dave McKean, at the helm of his first
feature-length movie, puts a lot of flourishes in, both visually and
thematically, but manages to harness the CGI razzle-dazzle into setting a
foreboding mood, establishing character, and furthering the story. The effects
are seamless, so that I often didn't know whether I was watching live actors,
CGI magic, or the puppetry of the Jim Henson Company, which made this movie. His
skill has already been rewarded: McKean won the Youth Jury Award at the Locarno
International Film Festival in 2005 and his film was an audience award winner at
the Sarasota Film Festival and the Utopiales Film Festival. From the selfish
point of view of a Terry Pratchett fan, I found myself hoping he might try
Mort as his next feature-length project.

The extras are devoted mainly to showing audiences the seams in the special
effects, showing actress Leonides in harness against a blue screen during the
"Flight of the Monkeybirds," looking at each step in the "Giants
Development" from initial concept to compositing the final shots, and
answering questions in commentaries, interviews, and Q&A sessions (actually
a composite of Q&A sessions at several festivals, not just the San Diego
Comic-Con as billed on the back cover). If you're thinking about where CGI
technology can take movies, you'll want to hear McKean's thoughts in his
interview segment. If you just want more nifty visuals, check out "Day
16," which compresses a day of filming with time-lapse photography and puts
it on a split screen with the finished product, to musical accompaniment and
facts about the movie flashing on the screen, and the "Poster and Cover Art
Gallery," which shows the various posters and promotional faces of
Mirrormask.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack excellently captures the music, a sort of
chamber music with an otherwordly touch, and ambient noises of the surreal
worlds of Mirrormask. However, at times the dialogue volume dropped a
little low. I didn't check out all the foreign-language tracks and subtitles,
but I'm impressed that they put so many on there.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

At times, the movie looks like it should be hanging on an art gallery wall
instead of gracing your television screen with the surreal visuals taking over.
The final product is good, but sometimes pretentious.

Although the PG-rated movie isn't particularly objectionable, the intense
surrealism probably makes it too scary for little tykes, though older children
and teens likely will enjoy the story, which ultimately concerns testing limits
and finding autonomy.

Closing Statement

By the way, IMDb puts the budget at a modest $4 million, although the
finished product looks like much, much more. It left me with a good feeling
about what can be done with CGI.

The Verdict

Not guilty, although viewers might be looking around to see if any fish are
floating past for a few days afterwards.